You are given the head of a linked list. Delete the middle node, and return the head of the modified linked list.

The middle node of a linked list of size n is the ⌊n / 2⌋^th node from the start using 0-based indexing, where ⌊x⌋ denotes the largest integer less than or equal to x.

For n = 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, the middle nodes are 0, 1, 1, 2, and 2, respectively.

Example 1:

Input: head = [1,3,4,7,1,2,6]
Output: [1,3,4,1,2,6]
Explanation:
The above figure represents the given linked list. The indices of the nodes are written below.
Since n = 7, node 3 with value 7 is the middle node, which is marked in red.
We return the new list after removing this node.

Example 2:

Input: head = [1,2,3,4]
Output: [1,2,4]
Explanation:
The above figure represents the given linked list.
For n = 4, node 2 with value 3 is the middle node, which is marked in red.

Example 3:

Input: head = [2,1]
Output: [2]
Explanation:
The above figure represents the given linked list.
For n = 2, node 1 with value 1 is the middle node, which is marked in red.
Node 0 with value 2 is the only node remaining after removing node 1.

Constraints:

The number of nodes in the list is in the range [1, 10⁵].
1 <= Node.val <= 10⁵

Solution: Fast / Slow pointers

Use fast / slow pointers to find the previous node of the middle one, then skip the middle one.

prev.next = prev.next.next

Time complexity: O(n)
Space complexity: O(1)

C++

class Solution {

public:

ListNode* deleteMiddle(ListNode* head) {

ListNode dummy(0, head);

ListNode* prev = &dummy;

ListNode* fast = head;

// prev points to the previous node of the middle one.

while (fast && fast->next) {

prev = prev->next;

fast = fast->next->next;

}

prev->next = prev->next->next;

return dummy.next;

}

};

Problem

Given a non-empty, singly linked list with head node head, return a middle node of linked list.

If there are two middle nodes, return the second middle node.

Example 1:

Input: [1,2,3,4,5]
Output: Node 3 from this list (Serialization: [3,4,5])
The returned node has value 3.  (The judge's serialization of this node is [3,4,5]).
Note that we returned a ListNode object ans, such that:
ans.val = 3, ans.next.val = 4, ans.next.next.val = 5, and ans.next.next.next = NULL.

Example 2:

Input: [1,2,3,4,5,6]
Output: Node 4 from this list (Serialization: [4,5,6])
Since the list has two middle nodes with values 3 and 4, we return the second one.

Note:

The number of nodes in the given list will be between 1 and 100.

Solution: Slow + Fast Pointers

Time complexity: O(n)

Space complexity: O(1)

// Author: Huahua

// Running time: 0 ms

class Solution {

public:

ListNode* middleNode(ListNode* head) {

if (!head || !head->next) return head;

auto slow = head;

auto fast = head;

while (fast && fast->next) {

slow = slow->next;

fast = fast->next->next;

}

return slow;

}

};

Posts tagged as “middle”

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